Classic Content: How Brewery Cats Hiro and Saki Found Their Home at Apocalypse Brew Works

Saki, left, and Hiro, in their element. Photos courtesy of Apocalypse Brew Works

If you’ve ever been to Apocalypse Brew Works on Mellwood Avenue (lord knows how many times I’ve been there), you’ve no doubt met Hiro and Saki, the resident brewery cats. They’re as much a fixture there as the plastic cups, picnic tables and giant Jenga. This is the story of how they first came to live at the brewery.

My favorite aside: When I interviewed Kentucky Humane Society staff, these so-called “working cats” were described as being “feral” and unadoptable in a typical situation, so they were assigned to businesses. The very next visit I made to the brewery after writing this story in July 2014, Hiro walked out to greet me and promptly rolled over on his back so I could scratch his belly. Feral? Anyway, Saki recently had to undergo a procedure and has been absent from the brewery, but she will return soon. Sadly, Hiro has been missing his friend. This post goes out to them and all the great people at Apocalypse who take care of them.

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Fiona is a show-off. If she’s not poking her small gray paws through the wires in her crate to get your attention, she’s rolling over on her back so you can scratch her belly.

A few years ago, Fiona, who is not adoptable into a home environment, would probably already be dead. But thanks to a program at the Kentucky Humane Society, Fiona will soon be acclimated into a new environment as a working cat.

Sometimes also known as “barn cats,” strays or surrenders that simply aren’t adaptable to living with humans or using litterboxes or some other reason essentially get jobs. Last year, 153 such cats found homes in places like warehouses, greeneries and horse barns.  One KHS working cat now calls Churchill Downs home. A couple more “work” at an LG&E sub-station. Their job: to rid their new home of rodents.

“We didn’t want to call them barn cats,” says program director Tammy Siers. “We wanted people to know they’re not just available for barns. Anywhere there’s a rodent problem or where you have a suitable shelter out of the elements, I’ll place them.”

So, what kinds of cats become working cats? Sometimes they are feral or semi-feral. Others simply tend to get over-stimulated from human contact and are quick to bite or scratch.

“Some people adopt them because they have a family member who has an allergy,” Andrea Blair, KHS director of communications, says. ”If they’re passionate about cats, they’ll adopt them” as outside pets.

Siers recently placed a cat with a family in Audubon Park because she was a “door dasher” – she would dash outside anytime the door was opened – and needed to live outside. A family with kids that badly wanted a cat but whose dad had bad allergies now has a pet living in the garage.

“People want them for variety of reasons,” Siers says. “I’ve had a lot of people call me from out in the east end. They spend a ton of money on landscaping, and they have chipmunks and moles that just tear it up. Get a couple of cats and that will do it.”

You can’t really train a cat the way you train a dog, so what KHS does for such cats is, first and foremost, keep them alive and provide them a place to live, and secondly, make sure they are healthy and vaccinated, are micro-chipped ad are spayed or neutered before they go anywhere.

“We’ve actually been shocked at how popular it has been,” Blair says. “Sometimes we have a waiting list. If a cat qualifies for home adoption, that’s our first choice. But these are cats that would have been euthanized if not for this program.”

Often, two cats will be pair-bonded at the humane society and placed together. Blair says the reason is simple: “Cats are more likely to stick around if they have a friend.”

Two such cats recently found a new home at Apocalypse Brew Works on Mellwood Avenue. Owner and brewer Leah Dienes is an animal lover and supporter of local animal charities. And her brewery, which shares space with Krauth & Sons Electric and Plumbing, could use a couple of mouse hunters.

The two cats start their stay with two or three weeks in a shared crate, which gives them time to feel comfortable that the new environment is their home. After this settling-in period, they’ll be free to roam the brewery and garages, and even the grounds.

In keeping with the Apocalypse theme of the brewery – where the slogan is “Drink beer ’til the end” – Dienes named her new cats Hiro and Saki. She refers to them as the brewery’s “first two full-time employees.”

Working cat adoption is similar to home adoption in that the adopters are interviewed and the environment is reviewed by KHS before the cats are placed. In addition, the cats are ear-tipped, which means that a small piece of an ear is clipped off to signal that the cat has been spayed or neutered.

Interestingly, there is a high success rates for cats staying where they are placed. Blair says that nationally, about 70 percent of working cats adopt their new home permanently. The Kentucky Humane Society program’s rate is over 80 percent.

“We’re doing something right,” Blair says.

“In the past there wasn’t any alternative for these cats,” Siers agrees. “This gives them a chance.”

This post was originally published by Insider Louisville.